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Description
Cover: [link]
Set One: [link]
Set Two: [link]
Set Three: [link]
Set Four: [link]
Set Five: [link]
Set Six: [link]
Set Seven: [link]
Set Eight: [link]
Set Nine: [link]
Set Ten: [link]
Set Eleven: [link]
Set Twelve: [link]
Set Thirteen: [link]
Set Fourteen: --

Yes, yes, I'm a terrible person. Honestly, any of you who have read Shades of Grey should KNOW THIS BY NOW.

I think my favorite part of this is Puck's incredibly shallow approach to an incredibly serious question for Frost. I love the contrast there.

In the end, I decided to focus down on the two characters of the round. I did have a massive plan for everything, but simply not the time to include it. However, if I had an infinite time-line to work with, here's some of what you'd have gotten a chance to see:

SCENES THAT GOT CUT:
Panic. Sheer, bloody panic. All the other contestants trapped in the Garden as they deal with (or flee from) their fears.
THE DARK LORD/HAMLET SAGAThe Dark Lord (currently puppeting Omni around) snapping Lucien's neck and then planting evidence to frame the elves. Len enters shortly after with his appointed Elvin adviser and finds his friend dead. Realizing that his lack of action and indecision has cost him his best friend, he swings over to the opposite side of thought (ala Hamlet) and starts making quick, rash, and bloody decisions. The first being, beheading the elf adviser. At that moment Emmei and Telgi arrive with an army of dwarves at their backs, demanding that the humans join their crusade against the elves and then realizing that Len's kinda already ahead of them. I had a HILARIOUS pun planned here. It involved heads. I'll let you imagine that for a while...And why is Emmei leading the elves? Remember in Round Four how she and Telgi met a Dark Lord with long, flowing hair in Cecilia's round [link] ? I interpreted that as they met OMNI in that round, prior to her meeting Frost. Omni instructed them to go convince the Dwarves to get back in the fight, something Emmei attempted mostly by bullying (I SHALL CRIPPLE YOUR METAL-BASED ECONOMY! WORSHIP ME AS YOUR QUEEN!) and Telgi accomplished with sound arguments and a down-to-earth attitude. Together, the humans and dwarves head out to war. Meanwhile, Hector and Gabi meet up with the Dark Lord/Omni with the Orc army, also on the move against the elves. Omni is still unconscious at this point, mentally connected with Lucy and co-habitating Asmodeus' shell, as staying in the mind of a dead body is not good for your chances of survival. I also had an awesome segment where Omni messes with Lucy's mental infrastructure, defacing a huge statue of Lucy (with caption "World's Greatest Wizard") and putting her own face in its place. The payoff for this joke would have just gone on pretty much forever, because Lucy would have been unable to call himself the World's Greatest Wizard, and known that somehow Omni was to blame. "I'm the World's (second) Greatest Wizard! Wha-? No, that's not what I meant! I meant there's (almost) nobody better than me! No! I mean - I'M JUST GOOD AT WHAT I DO, OKAY???" Annnnnnnyway, back with the Orc army Omni's body is leading the troops with the Dark Lord pulling the strings. Hector and Gabi start to realize something is wrong, and secretly start hatching a plan to separate Omni and the armor. Srug discovers their plan and DRAMA ENSUES. I realized in the story-boarding stage that I was COMPLETELY INSANE if I thought I could cram all this into a comic entry, as this is enough for an entire story all by itself. Alas, I could only dream. Which is a shame, because Emperor Len on a quest of vengeance was promising some EPIC bad ass moments. There was this one page in particular I REALLY wanted to draw and...*sigh* Editing sucks.
Rhi is bad ass (as usual) An EPIC fight between Lena, Rhi, and Rhi's demon familiars. Because I love Rhi. A lot.
Kekremont is bad ass (as usual) An even MORE EPIC fight between Oberon (in Sophia's form) and Kekremont. Oberon might have size on his side, but he's in a body completely unfamiliar to him. Kekremont also had an attack of opportunity to start the fight, and in the end (as you see in this set) was triumphant. The cost of victory, however, was that he had to face down a lot of lingering guilt and anger directed at Sophia. Guilt for not being there when she died, and anger at not only himself, but at her and their culture for forcing him in a position he didn't entirely want to be. He realizes that a good portion of this rage and grief he had redirected and projected onto Moscorn. This doesn't mean they were going to become Best Buds, but I was going to leave it open for the possibility of either reconciliation or regression from that point. I included just the tiniest hint of it here, with the line "Just like Sophia".
Tony gets an imaginary illegitimate son! Back in Frost and Collin's world (in which time travels significantly slower - about an hour for every OG day) all 20 of Frost's body-guards (blood-bonded to Collin) have got almost insane. The instant Collin left their dimension, it activated the conditions of their contract, which is to protect the Winter Lord from "mortal peril". Being unable to fulfill this compulsion, they are all gripped with a constant sensation of panic and a full-fledged adrenaline rush. Tony mostly manages to hold the group together, assigning them time-consuming tasks to keep them out of trouble while he tries to figure out what's going on. He first rushes to Collin's room (again, without knowing WHY, just that he feels like he should) and finds him missing. Figuring the Library a likely place for the kid to be, he goes there and discovers the Blood Magic book and the spell-work Collin did. At this point, Tony puts together all the pieces and realizes 1) Frost is not the true Winter Lord, Collin is and 2) Given the brutality and irrationality of a lot of Fae culture, Frost's gambit to protect his brother is actually not that bad an idea. If Collin WAS exposed as the true Winter Lord, it would mean chaos in the court, civil war, and a high chance of assassination of the boy. Tony resolves to use the same spell that Collin did to get to Frost and Collin, tapping into the collective blood-bond of all the body-guards to do it. However, to protect Frost and Collin's secret, he tells the rest of the group that Frost had gone to rescue Tony's illegitimate half-Fae child and, as a result, was now facing mortal peril. He explains that Frost has been sheltering the kid, Collin, because the mother had abandoned the "tainted" child. Fae culture is not accepting of mixed-bloods (as in, they generally kill them at birth) so the boys buy this, but Tony will NEVER LIVE THIS DOWN. They do conclude that it makes sense, however, as Tony spends all of his time in Frost's complex and tends to fall into Fathering roles and mannerisms. In a lot of ways, the idea of Tony being Collin's father is not that far off, as he typically is in charge of most of Collin's raising and education. If the group succeeds in opening the portal, they will re-connect Collin to his own magic pool and he will return to his normal Full-Wolverine-Healing-Factor state. The boys, meanwhile, would have found Frost beat to crap as he is and would have concluded that, "Yeah, he probably WAS in mortal danger," thus explaining the compulsion they were feeling and never linking it to "Tony's" kid.
I GO INSANE

...Sooooo maybe I was a little overly ambitious when I scripted this round. Okay...maybe "little" is a bit of an understatement. I still wish I could have done it. It would have been so incredibly epic. *sigh* CURSE YOU EDITING ROOM FLOOR!!!!

If you haven't already, check out Rillid's work. He's done an incredible job of SUCCEEDING in juggling all his threads, and is just plain awesome to boot. So have a look: [link]

Frost and Collin(c) me
Moscorn, Kekremont, and Sophia (c)
Rhi and Lena (c)
Asmodeus (c)
Oberon's Garden, Oberon, Lucy, and Puck (c)

Description
Cover: [link]
Set One: [link]
Set Two: [link]
Set Three: [link]
Set Four: [link]
Set Five: [link]
Set Six: [link]
Set Seven: [link]
Set Eight: [link]
Set Nine: [link]
Set Ten: [link]
Set Eleven: [link]
Set Twelve: [link]
Set Thirteen: [link]
Set Fourteen: --

Yes, yes, I'm a terrible person. Honestly, any of you who have read Shades of Grey should KNOW THIS BY NOW.

I think my favorite part of this is Puck's incredibly shallow approach to an incredibly serious question for Frost. I love the contrast there.

In the end, I decided to focus down on the two characters of the round. I did have a massive plan for everything, but simply not the time to include it. However, if I had an infinite time-line to work with, here's some of what you'd have gotten a chance to see:

SCENES THAT GOT CUT:
Panic. Sheer, bloody panic. All the other contestants trapped in the Garden as they deal with (or flee from) their fears.
THE DARK LORD/HAMLET SAGAThe Dark Lord (currently puppeting Omni around) snapping Lucien's neck and then planting evidence to frame the elves. Len enters shortly after with his appointed Elvin adviser and finds his friend dead. Realizing that his lack of action and indecision has cost him his best friend, he swings over to the opposite side of thought (ala Hamlet) and starts making quick, rash, and bloody decisions. The first being, beheading the elf adviser. At that moment Emmei and Telgi arrive with an army of dwarves at their backs, demanding that the humans join their crusade against the elves and then realizing that Len's kinda already ahead of them. I had a HILARIOUS pun planned here. It involved heads. I'll let you imagine that for a while...And why is Emmei leading the elves? Remember in Round Four how she and Telgi met a Dark Lord with long, flowing hair in Cecilia's round [link] ? I interpreted that as they met OMNI in that round, prior to her meeting Frost. Omni instructed them to go convince the Dwarves to get back in the fight, something Emmei attempted mostly by bullying (I SHALL CRIPPLE YOUR METAL-BASED ECONOMY! WORSHIP ME AS YOUR QUEEN!) and Telgi accomplished with sound arguments and a down-to-earth attitude. Together, the humans and dwarves head out to war. Meanwhile, Hector and Gabi meet up with the Dark Lord/Omni with the Orc army, also on the move against the elves. Omni is still unconscious at this point, mentally connected with Lucy and co-habitating Asmodeus' shell, as staying in the mind of a dead body is not good for your chances of survival. I also had an awesome segment where Omni messes with Lucy's mental infrastructure, defacing a huge statue of Lucy (with caption "World's Greatest Wizard") and putting her own face in its place. The payoff for this joke would have just gone on pretty much forever, because Lucy would have been unable to call himself the World's Greatest Wizard, and known that somehow Omni was to blame. "I'm the World's (second) Greatest Wizard! Wha-? No, that's not what I meant! I meant there's (almost) nobody better than me! No! I mean - I'M JUST GOOD AT WHAT I DO, OKAY???" Annnnnnnyway, back with the Orc army Omni's body is leading the troops with the Dark Lord pulling the strings. Hector and Gabi start to realize something is wrong, and secretly start hatching a plan to separate Omni and the armor. Srug discovers their plan and DRAMA ENSUES. I realized in the story-boarding stage that I was COMPLETELY INSANE if I thought I could cram all this into a comic entry, as this is enough for an entire story all by itself. Alas, I could only dream. Which is a shame, because Emperor Len on a quest of vengeance was promising some EPIC bad ass moments. There was this one page in particular I REALLY wanted to draw and...*sigh* Editing sucks.
Rhi is bad ass (as usual) An EPIC fight between Lena, Rhi, and Rhi's demon familiars. Because I love Rhi. A lot.
Kekremont is bad ass (as usual) An even MORE EPIC fight between Oberon (in Sophia's form) and Kekremont. Oberon might have size on his side, but he's in a body completely unfamiliar to him. Kekremont also had an attack of opportunity to start the fight, and in the end (as you see in this set) was triumphant. The cost of victory, however, was that he had to face down a lot of lingering guilt and anger directed at Sophia. Guilt for not being there when she died, and anger at not only himself, but at her and their culture for forcing him in a position he didn't entirely want to be. He realizes that a good portion of this rage and grief he had redirected and projected onto Moscorn. This doesn't mean they were going to become Best Buds, but I was going to leave it open for the possibility of either reconciliation or regression from that point. I included just the tiniest hint of it here, with the line "Just like Sophia".
Tony gets an imaginary illegitimate son! Back in Frost and Collin's world (in which time travels significantly slower - about an hour for every OG day) all 20 of Frost's body-guards (blood-bonded to Collin) have got almost insane. The instant Collin left their dimension, it activated the conditions of their contract, which is to protect the Winter Lord from "mortal peril". Being unable to fulfill this compulsion, they are all gripped with a constant sensation of panic and a full-fledged adrenaline rush. Tony mostly manages to hold the group together, assigning them time-consuming tasks to keep them out of trouble while he tries to figure out what's going on. He first rushes to Collin's room (again, without knowing WHY, just that he feels like he should) and finds him missing. Figuring the Library a likely place for the kid to be, he goes there and discovers the Blood Magic book and the spell-work Collin did. At this point, Tony puts together all the pieces and realizes 1) Frost is not the true Winter Lord, Collin is and 2) Given the brutality and irrationality of a lot of Fae culture, Frost's gambit to protect his brother is actually not that bad an idea. If Collin WAS exposed as the true Winter Lord, it would mean chaos in the court, civil war, and a high chance of assassination of the boy. Tony resolves to use the same spell that Collin did to get to Frost and Collin, tapping into the collective blood-bond of all the body-guards to do it. However, to protect Frost and Collin's secret, he tells the rest of the group that Frost had gone to rescue Tony's illegitimate half-Fae child and, as a result, was now facing mortal peril. He explains that Frost has been sheltering the kid, Collin, because the mother had abandoned the "tainted" child. Fae culture is not accepting of mixed-bloods (as in, they generally kill them at birth) so the boys buy this, but Tony will NEVER LIVE THIS DOWN. They do conclude that it makes sense, however, as Tony spends all of his time in Frost's complex and tends to fall into Fathering roles and mannerisms. In a lot of ways, the idea of Tony being Collin's father is not that far off, as he typically is in charge of most of Collin's raising and education. If the group succeeds in opening the portal, they will re-connect Collin to his own magic pool and he will return to his normal Full-Wolverine-Healing-Factor state. The boys, meanwhile, would have found Frost beat to crap as he is and would have concluded that, "Yeah, he probably WAS in mortal danger," thus explaining the compulsion they were feeling and never linking it to "Tony's" kid.
I GO INSANE

...Sooooo maybe I was a little overly ambitious when I scripted this round. Okay...maybe "little" is a bit of an understatement. I still wish I could have done it. It would have been so incredibly epic. *sigh* CURSE YOU EDITING ROOM FLOOR!!!!

If you haven't already, check out Rillid's work. He's done an incredible job of SUCCEEDING in juggling all his threads, and is just plain awesome to boot. So have a look: [link]

Frost and Collin(c) me
Moscorn, Kekremont, and Sophia (c)
Rhi and Lena (c)
Asmodeus (c)
Oberon's Garden, Oberon, Lucy, and Puck (c)